Jill Konrath

In Cracking the LinkedIn Sales Code, which highlights the results of our 2013 Sales & LinkedIn survey, we discovered that top sellers had significantly more LinkedIn connections with their customers than everyone else. 

That's a huge difference. And here’s an even starker contrast. If you look at the 55% of survey respondents who never generated an opportunity via LinkedIn, they’re only connected to 9.8% of their customers. Mmmm. Do you think being connected to customers might matter?

Rachael Lyman is a Membership Account Executive with the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce. Rather than pounding the pavement to bring in new members, she's leveraging LinkedIn as her prime prospecting tool. Check out her strategies for building a highly profitable online network. 

Gene McNaughton, President of Business Breakthroughs, International, takes his LinkedIn activity seriously. He has to! When your targeted prospects are senior-level decision-makers, you don't get a second chance. They make snap decisions about if you're someone who's worth talking to -- or not. 

To ensure that he can quickly connect to these executives, Gene does his homework. And that's exactly what top sellers do on LinkedIn. 86.7% of them always research prospects prior to making contact, compared to only 26.7% of their colleagues. 

Now, check out Gene's story to find out what he's looking for on LinkedIn and how he uses his research.

Keeping in front of your prospects is essential for sales success. It often takes between 10-12 emails or phone calls before you actually connect. And, in most cases, they're not ready to make a change.  

So how can you nurture prospects and keep in touch without being a pest? And, better yet, how can you contact prospects in a way that elevates your credibility?  

As a partner in Sales for Life, Jamie Shanks is constantly pushing the boundaries of what's possible with LinkedIn and other social selling tools. I'm always learning new things from him -- which is why I think you'll like today's article about the business value of using LinkedIn. 

Who's your biggest sales competitor? It's not who you think. It's the status quo. Doing nothing is the absolute easiest thing for people to do -- even if the process or products they're using now aren't doing a good job.

Over the years, I've always lost about 50% of my identified prospects to no decision. Sometimes it truly doesn't make sense to change. I can live with that. But other times it is foolhardy to stay with what they're doing -- yet they still do. Those are the times that drive me crazy.

Did you know that overall, you're 5X more likely to get a sales call returned if you have a personal connection with someone? To me, that's an amazing statistic. In a world where people are swamped at work and suffering from information overload, it's the best way to capture their attention.   

So what does that mean you should be doing?  In essence, implementing a connection-based strategy to reach new prospects.